Introducing plants into "conservation areas"

Hello,

I'm new to this forum, and I have a dilemma on which I'd like some input. We're homeowners in eastern Massachusetts, and our 1-acre property includes woods with a stream running through it. The woods that we own are continuous with a larger wooded area owned by the neighbors, with additional woods/wetlands across the street. The stream flows to a reservoir. Due to the presence of the reservoir, homeowners are asked not to "manicure" the woods -- specifically, not to remove fallen trees and branches, but to let them decay naturally. This is supposed to protect the purity of the water flowing into the reservoir, although I suspect their larger goal is to protect the ecology of the stream and adjacent woodlands.

Generally speaking, I'm happy to abide by this. However, I keep thinking how pretty the woods would be with the introduction of some native wildflowers -- specifically, Lobelia siphilitica and Lobelia cardinalis, and perhaps Trillium grandiflorum. As I see it, they're pretty, native, and non-invasive; the great blue Lobelia is actually endangered in Massachusetts.

So does it count as environmental tampering if I introduce these plants into the woods?

If they grew there in that area naturally, maybe moving some plants around would be ok, but if they don't occur in the area naturally, then you are tampering with the purity of the existing ecosystem. I would check with your local ag. agent before doing any planting.

That's just it -- the plants are native to Massachuesetts, and the fact that the great blue Lobelia is currently endangered suggests that it became so due to human intervention and tampering with the ecosystem (e.g. building the homes around here). I'm wondering if it might not be beneficial to re-introduce species that ought to be here, but are no longer.

I'm happy to contact an agricultural agent if I could find one. I've tried Googling the term for our county and state, with no luck.

I like your idea in principle. Some thoughts... The lobelias tend to grow in sunny spots rather than woodlands, so they may not survive when sited in shade. Trilliums are definitely woodland species, but they tend to prefer calcareous clay, while most of Mass. is sandy, acidic soil in my experience, which may account for their absence. Lady slippers, by contrast, seem to love thin, acidic soil. Again, in principle, I don't disagree with your idea of reintroducing natives well-suited to the site, but I guess I would just recommend some intensive research before going ahead.

http://www.umassextension.org/index.php/in-your-community

Check out this site and see if it helps. You can also call the Univ. of Mass. and ask for the name of your county agent's office.

Hi, not trying to make your decision for you, but if you decide to plant some blue lobelia, I'm about to pull a section of my garden here in N. Va of them. I could send you a dozen seedlings. Also I'm clearing a native ground cover (photo) with them called 'painter's palatte' (Persicaria virginiana). Although they seem to winter-over here in Va,they are listed as a biennial which reseeds nicely and covers in a few years. It grows low to the ground the first year and pops up to about a foot the second and produces seeds. No flower to speak of, but are listed by USDA as native east of Mississippi. LMK

Kay, thank you for the link. Some preliminary clicking around indicates that they might have information that will help me make an informed decision, but the one "contact us" link I've found (so far) stated that they don't have the resources to take questions from the general public. So I'll have to keep digging on my own, but it does look like a good website. I've always heard people say, "contact your county extension information for more information" but have never been sure just how to do that! (And if they don't take questions from the general public, I'm still not sure!)

Jsorens, thank you for the clarification about Lobelia's growing preferences. I had always heard it was shade-tolerant, and it did well as a shade plant in my garden when we lived in the midwest. The fact that it grew there at all makes me think it must not be very particular, because our summers there were hot and dry. I know it prefers damp soil, and the area around the stream (here at our home in MA) is quite boggy. I guess based on my experience with growing it in the shade, I'm inclined to try it anyway, and if it doesn't grow, I won't sweat it. I can definitely try lady's slipper, although I've heard they're very delicate and tricky to grow. I hadn't realized trillium preferred calcareous clay, so again, I appreciate the info. On an unrelated note, I grew up in Buffalo. :-)

Mailman, as mentioned, I'm new to the forum, and also new to the concept of plants by mail.... how would you send me seedlings? My husband never had much luck with planting bare-root fruit trees, and I've really only done plants from seed or transplants purchased locally. I am interested in the blue lobelia, though.

Thanks again, everyone! I'm loving this website!

Normally, I wrap them in moist paper towels and if you plant them immediately, you should get 60-70% to take. You can also pot them and let them take in the pots in partial shade for a few weeks. They should transplant well after that. I will try to leave some soil to help them naturalize. Worth a try, send me an D-mail with your mailing address.

Bill

This message was edited May 16, 2009 9:39 AM

Now Buffalo is a place where trilliums can thrive. ;-) Of course, you don't see them much, b/c the natural environment here is much more degraded than that of most of northern New England, in my experience. I just moved here a few years ago & am enjoying learning about the local plants.

I've also grown blue lobelia in shade, but I found that I had to baby it. I don't think it likes a leaf coat. This year I didn't bother removing the leaves around it, and it hasn't come up.

Something else I've learned recently that everyone introducing anything to a wild area, even on her own property, should be aware of: In most of the northern U.S., there are no native earthworms, and introducing earthworms can cause serious destruction to native forests. They often hitch rides in compost, mulch, or soil. Even when the worms themselves are screened out, their eggs can remain. Here's some useful info on worms from the MN state gov:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/earthworms/index.html

Ack! That's a very interesting link about the earthworms! We have a pretty lush forest floor here, and perhaps not coincidentally, we have very few earthworms. My son likes to fish, and he's constantly frustrated whenever he tries to dig for earthworms, because he rarely finds them (and more often in my flower beds than in the woods). Maybe I should stick with seeds for whatever I hope to introduce into the woods. Bill, I would still be interested in the lobelia for my garden -- the horse is already out of that barn, as they say, because I (and the previous owner) have been putting transplants, soil, mulch, etc. in there for years.

Good news! Some plants that I thought were jack-in-the-pulpit are in bloom now, and it looks like they're actually pink lady's slipper (I'm going to post the photos to the plant id forum to be sure). So maybe they aren't as hard to grow as I thought, and maybe I can move some over to other parts of the woods.

In my experience, pink lady slipper is as at least as common in northern New England as white & red trilliums are out this way. :)

This is supposed to protect the purity of the water flowing into the reservoir, although I suspect their larger goal is to protect the ecology of the stream and adjacent woodlands.

Both are one and the same.

At least Trillium cernuum and Trillium grandiflorum are pH adaptable, as both grown in southern MN and northern MN. The former being woodsie over calcium based soils (pH neutral), the latter being acid (pH 5).

In the right place Lobelia siphilitica can be quite weedy. Alway watch carefully anything you introduce. Same with jack-in-the-pulpit.

Earthworms are becoming an eco-disaster for many forest floor plants in MN woods. They are not native to MN either. Oh! I see that link is to our DNR . . . .

MN seems to be the state doing the most to prevent the spread of earthworms. Good for them, I say.

On a slightly related note (getting back to introducing plants into conservation areas).... I've recently discovered that some of the tall sedum (Sedum spectabile) from my garden is escaping into the forest, scores of feet from the 4 sedum plants in the garden. This surprises me, because I would think they wouldn't like it in the woods since I've read that they prefer hot, dry spots. Has anyone else known these plants to be invasive?

I've never even seen a seedling!

Why don't you contact Garden in the Woods in Framingham, run by the New England Wildflower Society, and see what they recommend? Here's the contact info:

New England Wild Flower Society at Garden in the Woods
180 Hemenway Road, Framingham, MA 01701
508/877-7630; (FAX) 508/877-3658; (TTY) 508/877-6553
Nasami Farm Native Plant Nurseries
128 North Street, Whately, MA 01373
413-397-9922

I'm a little late to this thread, but on the original question of introducing some native plants to the conservation area, you will probably need to be a bit narrower in your definition of what is "native" for a situation like that, vs if you were just trying to grow natives in your garden. Just because something is native to somewhere in your state doesn't mean it would have occurred naturally in that type of environment in your particular area of the state, so I would definitely get some advice from some native plant experts before planting anything and make sure things you plant are things that truly would naturally occur in that particular environment.

Just found this thread--wow, I always thought earthworms were everywhere! How interesting! We have a lot of them here in our northern KY woods.